


Odin's Eye

by AzTheDragon



Category: DreamWorks Dragons (Cartoon), How to Train Your Dragon (Movies), Tales of Arcadia (Cartoons), Trollhunters - Daniel Kraus & Guillermo del Toro
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, These snakes needs a name, Time Travel, Troll Jim Lake Jr., never mix alien technology and ancient troll magic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-17
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:21:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 14,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23183935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AzTheDragon/pseuds/AzTheDragon
Summary: Jim and Krel have no idea where they are exactly. All they know is that they are stuck on an island with just themselves for company and no signs of a rescue party. In addition, the lack of technological devices makes things worse than they should be.On the other side of the same island, Hiccup and his friends just flew into one of the most absurd and confusing situations a viking would ever see. Only they don't know it yet.
Comments: 137
Kudos: 503





	1. Alien Tech and Troll Magic Don't Mix

**Author's Note:**

> So, this fic take place after season 3 for Trollhunters and after season 2 for 3Below. As for the HTTYD side, due to me not having seen all the seasons (six? Eight?), it is placed somewhere in Race to the Edge, though it could be anywhere. Not very important, though, because I will probably not focus on whatever plot there was in the show.
> 
> Friendly reminder that English is not my main language and that I have no beta reader. Expect errors, wrong phrasing, missing words, and general grammatical weirdness.

One thing that had become apparent with living on Earth was that 'alien' technology and ancient troll magic didn't mix well together.

Sure, such combination would yield interesting results. New discoveries even. Unfortunately, the risks were too high without first involving experts from both fields, lots and lots of virtual simulations, a controlled environment, and possibly a very isolated location.

As it turned out, throwing together an active portable black hole generator, an ancient time manipulating troll totem, and an old, rickety fusion generator was not the way to do things.

The resulting explosion should have ripped him to shred, core and all, leaving nothing behind to burrow.

Krel sighed deeply, leaning against one of the many trees in the forest. He knew he should feel lucky to be even alive, but most of him just missed home and his family. The only consolation was that he was not alone in this, for while he had been the only one within the range of whatever spatial distortion was happening, another one had willingly jumped in.

Just to protect him from most of the energy released in that single moment. Even if they were nothing more than casual friends at the time.

“Are you alright over there?”

His companion's voice sounded strangely soft compared to his new appearance. One might think that a seven foot tall creature would have a much deeper voice. That it would always be booming no matter what. Thankfully, whatever had changed Jim Lake Jr. into a troll, it had spared his voice.

Mostly.

Krel could hear some guttural growling when Jim was either frustrated or angry.

“Yes...” the Akaridion pounded his two left hands against the tree, wishing his own frustration could leave with the impact. “I just... this...” One of his free hands went up to tug at his hair. “I can't do anything! My tech is all gone after that explosion! I would have lost my life too if you didn't jump in and shielded me! I...! I...!”

Jim laughed, and Krel turned around to look at the only person he could count on right now. The half troll was walking towards him, skirting the patches of sun that filtered through the dark canopy far above their heads. It was impressive how quiet he could be with that armor of his.

“How can you laugh at a time like this?”

Jim gave a shrug and widened his smile. It wasn't one of those 'I'm-smiling-because-it's-fun' smile, though. It was more of a gesture meant to ease someone's inner turmoil. Something that Krel found himself appreciating very much.

“Desperation is never a good company,” he replied, placing one large hand onto the Akaridion's shoulder. “I know it's hard. I miss everyone, too! Still... as Blinky once said to me, 'even the word hopeless is not devoid of hope'.”

Krel took a deep breath and kept it in for a moment, then let it out as he slid down to sit against the tree. “I suppose...” he mumbled. “I mean, it's a great advice and all, it's just...”

His eyes found the ground and a small part of him wanted to count how many pine needles there were between his feet. Perhaps it was a really stupid way to spend his time, but it would occupy his mind for a while. Keep him from falling into thoughts he wished to not think.

“Here, I found this.” Jim stood in front of him now, and a moment later his large, blue hand appeared. It was holding something rectangular and flat, with a shiny black surface that reflected his face as if it was a darkened mirror. “I know it's nothing much, but...”

The Akaridion took the small object in his upper hands while the bottom ones held onto the ground for stability. “This... this is...” Krel could not believe what he was seeing, yet there was no denying it.

Somehow, his phone had followed them to this place without getting damaged. Granted, the battery had died sometime during the past week, and there was some dirt on the bottom half, but even a dead device was better than having nothing at all.

This also meant that there could be more out there. And if there was enough, maybe he could come up with something that could really help. Maybe even something that could send a distress signal with their current location.

Krel stood up, holding the phone as if it was made of the most delicate glass. He looked up at the smiling Jim and couldn't help but return the gesture. “You found my phone...” he whispered, hope finally coloring his thoughts. “You found my phone!”

His smile widened into a grin and he threw all his four arms up into the air as if to praise the heavens. “This is _glorious_!”

Jim's laugh echoed along his words, and Krel finally felt happy for the first time since waking up in a strange and unknown island. He let himself dance to a tune that only he could hear, twirling and jumping, moving his arms in a sort of wave and drawing circles around the Trollhunter.

He let this heightened state of being last a few minutes, then he forced himself to stop because he needed to focus. And while he wanted nothing more than to bask into the excitement this finding brought him, there was work to do.

“Where did you find it?” he asked, his free pair of hands grabbing his friend by the forearms. “There was nothing where we woke up!”

Jim's smile was as wide as Krel's, just more toothy. “On the other side of the woods,” he replied. The only reason why he wasn't as excited as the Akaridion was that said feeling had toned down during his trip back to him. “I was looking for something to eat, and... well, I picked on a familiar scent. Turns out that technology has a distinctive... flavor, I guess? I never noticed until now.”

It was probably due to the fact that the scent of metal and plastic was too widespread back home, while here it was just ground, pines, and the sea in the distance.

“Alright, hop on! I'll take you there ”

Jim was crouching now, with his back turned towards him. Usually he carried his sword there, but Krel had seen him being able to summon and dispel the weapon with nothing more than a thought. Chances were that the blade was being stored in the amulet right now.

He threw his upper two arms around his friend's neck, while his bottom ones found purchase around his torso along with his legs. Frankly, he felt more like one of those koalas than an Akaridion right now, but the possible humiliation was worth it if it meant being able to travel at the speed Jim was capable of.

So off they went, running across the uneven ground of the woods and jumping over obstacles as if they were nothing. Their path was straight, deviating only when the Trollhunter was forced to go around a large patch of sunlight or a large tree, and it took them barely half a hour to get where they needed to be.

“This is it?” Krel asked, disentangling himself from his friend's back once they came to a halt.

The place was no different than the rest of the woods, with the only distinction that Jim had scratched the bark of one of the trees for better identification. “This is it,” the Trollhunter replied, following him through the undergrowth. “Right by the marked tree.”

Krel stopped and hummed. One of his hands mindlessly played with the phone while the other three rested against his sides. “This is somewhere south-west of where we appeared,” he mused. Without instruments to measure directions, he and Jim had to rely on the sun, the stars, and memory alone for navigating the land, and while this setup was not bad, it wasn't precise either.

“I checked around for more.” Jim moved a branch out of the way and looked into the distance. The sea was not too far from them, but the trees were so thick that it could be barely seen. “Nothing. I'm guessing that whatever stuff is here, it's all over the place. I can smell things way better than a human now, but I'm not as good of a tracker as Aaarrrgghh is.”

The Akaridion looked up and saw how tense his friend was. He too was refusing to think about the possibility that his phone might be the only thing that had survived the trip.

“This would be so much easier if we could just go out and talk with someone.” Jim banged a hand against the tree, splintering the wood and causing it to shake violently. “I'm sure that someone in the nearby settlement could help.”

Krel shared both sentiment and belief. More eyes meant more chances that something would be found.

“Maybe we can sneak in after sunset? You know... check things out?” he offered.

He wasn't very keen in walking into the village even with the favor of the darkest of nights. After all, there was so much that could go wrong in so little time. Still, the people living there could prove useful in their search for a way home.

Jim sighed, his shoulders slumping in defeat. “Wort a try,” he mumbled, looking in the direction he knew the village was in. “In the worst case scenario, at least we can figure out where on Earth we are.”

“Or if we are still on Earth,” Krel corrected. “That distortion could have landed us on the other side of the universe for all we know...”

Jim's reply was a long sigh that ended in a displeased rumble.


	2. Dragon or Not, This Poses a Problem

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III never considered himself an exceptional example of leader material. He didn't feel like he could lead an entire tribe of unruly vikings into a prosperous future. He was far too prone to make mistakes and bad decisions. Before meeting Toothless, everything he did ended up in disaster. For him, but mostly for others.

Heck, even now things tended to go towards a disastrous failure if he was not extra careful.

Still, here he was. Two days of flight away from Berk and about one and half from The Edge, leading his friends through a deserted village in search of anything that could explain what had happened. When Stoik had sent him a messenger, he was told of a terrified viking from a very small tribe shipwrecking on Berk and babbling about monsters in the night.

He was pretty sure it had been a dragon to cause the problem, though he could see why Stoik was worried. If it wasn't a dragon, then it meant that it was an enemy tribe out for bloodshed, and frankly, he wasn't ready to go into a war against another group of humans when they had just gotten out of one against flying lizards that could breath fire.

“I don't know, Hiccup.” Fishlegs was tiptoeing behind him, looking ready to faint. Meatlug had decided that she did not want to land a single paw in that place, preferring to wait near the docks and leaving him without a dragon to rely on. “The damage to the buildings is nothing like I've ever seen before. Maybe...” Fishlegs rushed a few steps ahead and picked up a discarded bucket with a punch-sized hole right in the middle. He looked at it with a critical eye, examining every single nook and cranny. “Think it's a new breed? There is so much out there we don't know yet!”

The tall teen frowned. Having worked in the forge for most of his younger years, he knew how fire behaved. It was chaotic in nature, spreading with different speeds depending on what kind of material it was on. Denser wood lasted longer. Wool and cloth burned into ashes. Metal took a huge amount of heat to melt and did not scorch easily.

Fire, as he knew it, was unpredictable.

What he was seeing here, however, was not how fire should behave. The scorch markings were narrow and straight, going from a length of a few inches to several feet. Upon landing in the village, Hiccup had examined one of these burnt scars, noticing that its edges were as straight and clean as the line itself.

“I don't think it's a dragon,” he replied, more to himself than to his friend.

Yet it couldn't be another viking tribe either. No weapon could cause such peculiar and distinctive damage. Not even his sword, Inferno, could do this.

“Hiccup!”

Astrid's voice resounded through the empty village, gaining his attention and bringing him out of his musings. He turned around and watched as the strongest girl he knew ran towards him, agitating something as big as her fist above her head. Stormfly was running after her, looking as excited as her rider.

“Hey Astrid!” he greeted with a smile as she came to a halt in front of him. “Found something for me?”

The young woman halted in front of him and held the object out in front of her. It was a sphere made of metal, polished to such a degree that he could see his dulled, distorted reflection staring back at him. He took it in his hands, rolling it slowly until he found a small hole surrounded by a band of darker metal with really fine engravings on it.

“Wow...” Fishlegs' face was so close to the ball that his nose nearly touched it. “Look at all the tiny details... Jewelry boxes have nothing on this, and usually those are as fancy as they can be.”

Fishlegs was right. Some of the details on this thing were as thin as a strand of hair, intersecting each other to form complex shapes that sometimes repeated themselves. Probably runes of some sort, though Hiccup had never seen that kind before.

“Where did you find it?” He asked, bringing the sphere closer to his eyes. He had to admit that he was amazed at the craftsmanship of the object, deciding on the moment that whoever manufactured it was much more of a master than he could ever dream of being.

The moment he looked back up at her, Astrid turned towards the direction she had come from and pointed down the road. “Near the docks,” she replied. “Hiccup, I never saw something like this! Have you seen how polished it is? And the details? You can't carve like that, and you're one of the best blacksmiths I know!”

Truth to be told, he was a bit hurt at her comments, though he couldn't blame her at all. Actually, he shouldn't even take this personally. As much as he was proud of his ability in the forge and as a saddle maker, he wasn't a master yet. Not when he still learned new things, be either from Gobber or from his own experimentation.

But then that was beside the point. They were there to investigate what had happened to that viking's tribe, and mulling over a wounded pride was not going to help them.

“You found anything else?” he asked, forcing himself to focus back on their mission.

Astrid shook her head and pushed at Stormfly's snout to prevent her from reaching for the sphere. “Just that,” she replied. “I found it laying under an upturned cart on the side of the road. I think whoever it was, it lost this thing without noticing. Maybe they were in a hurry to, you know, do whatever they needed to do. Or maybe a viking knocked it away. This place might be still standing, but all this damage tells me there was a battle.”

She proved a point there, and Hiccup found himself wondering if she could be a much better choice for chief position. Yet the girl of his dreams refused to take charge, merely contenting herself with supporting him in whatever harebrained scheme he came up with. That is, unless it was a really stupid idea. Then she would voice her disapproval and occasionally punch him in the arm _before_ following him.

A low gurgling came from behind him, and a moment later Hiccup was stumbling around as he was pushed by his own dragon. Toothless, bless his dragon soul, had just returned from a quick round of the village and seemed as interested in the finding as he and Astrid were.

“Hey bud,” he greeted his friend. One hand went to scratch the Night Fury right behind the head while the other still held the ball of polished metal. “Found something interesting?” While dragons could not talk, Hiccup had learned long ago how to read them. Especially Toothless. It was surprising how expressive a dragon could be if you looked close enough.

“Hey, think dragons could help us find more of this stuff?”

At Fishlegs's suggestion, Hiccup looked back at him and hummed absently. It was true that dragons had a far better sense of smell than humans, but he wondered if this could be the case. It was metal, after all, and for all he knew, it could smell just like an axe, a hammer, or anything metallic laying around. It could be a wild dragon chase, and that was something they had no time for.

Whatever had happened here, he didn't want it to happen somewhere else only because he was being too slow in figuring things out.

The leader of the dragon riders sighed and closed his eyes. His mind was a bit overwhelmed with questions now, and as much as he tried to clear it, he was failing miserably. “Ahh... I don't think it's a good idea...” he gave another sigh, feeling something really heavy suddenly resting on his shoulders. “But again... might as well ask the dragons to look out for something strange while we do our own search.”

While he was at a loss, Hiccup refused to give up on this mystery. Mostly because he was worried, but also because of his never ending curiosity and the need to expand his personal knowledge.

He felt Astrid place a hand on his shoulder and he looked at her with tired eyes, suddenly feeling like he wanted nothing more than to just lay down in his bed and sleep for the next two days. Though dragon riding was the fastest way of traveling, getting up in the middle of the night for a very long trip hadn't been ideal for anyone involved.

Snotlout had been especially more of a pain in the neck than usual while the twins did nothing but fight through the whole flight. Astrid had been very close to kick them off of their saddle more than once.

“You want to do it now or start tomorrow?” the girl asked, bringing him out of the unpleasant memory. “Sun will go down soon, and we haven't set up camp yet.”

Hiccup looked at the horizon and sighed. Due to the distance and uncooperative wind currents, they had gotten to their destination later than initially programmed. Which resulted in the group having very little time to do an initial search before the sun dipped below the ocean. Something that would be happening soon, and with whatever was lurking in the island, Hiccup had no intention of letting anyone stumble around in the dead of night.

“Tomorrow,” he replied after a while. “Let's just find a good place to camp and start a fire.”

Astrid gave a small smile, then started to walk beside him as they made their way back to where they had first landed. She stared ahead, sure of herself like always, but sometimes she glanced both at him and the weird ball still in his hand. “What about using one of these houses?” she asked as an afterthought, her free hand motioning at the row of buildings on her side of the path.

The boy hummed, weighting the cos and pros of taking shelter in one of those abandoned structures. It was true that a house would shield them from the cold night and give a small amount of security, but for some reason he couldn't bring himself to set foot inside, preferring to skirt around them like a skittish mouse.

It was a feeling that had started as soon as he had set foot in the village, and he hated it.

“You think it's a good idea?”

At his question, she stopped in her tracks and caused him, Fishlegs, and the two following dragons to halt as well. Her eyes were scanning the village, briefly stopping only to examine one long scorch here or one deep cut there before continuing. “I... am not sure...”

Her confidence waned the more she observed, letting Hiccup know that he was not the only one with the weird paranoia. Perhaps she wasn't as affected as he was, but at least she felt that the place wasn't as safe as it should be.

“Let's go.” Hiccup urged her to resume walking with a gentle tug to her arm. “I don't want to be here when night falls.”

“I'm with you, there!” Fishlegs was so eager to go back to the comfort of his dragon that he rushed ahead, leaving two bemused teens and two confused dragons in his wake.


	3. A Dark Village

The night was chilly and humid, with the wind blowing stormy clouds from the sea. The moon was nothing more than a quarter of its full size, offering very little light to guide Jim and Krel through the grassy hills separating the woods from the village. Such scarcity of illumination would have been a problem if it wasn't for the fact that trolls had an exceptionally good night vision. 

As they traveled, they kept away from the dirty paths the locals had created to better access the rest of their island. Even with the favor of night, someone could still see them if close enough to their position.

“This feels like one of those movies,” Krel mused. He followed Jim down an incline and took refuge behind one of the large rock formations strewn across the land surrounding the village. Taking a peek, he noticed that their destination wasn't very far. About a few hundred feet if his judgment was correct.

Jim settled next to him, his taller body letting him observe the settlement from above the stone rather than from an angle like the Akaridion was doing. “What movies?”

“You know...” Krel stopped and rolled a hand into the air as he searched his mind for the right words. “What did Toby call them again? Spistores?”

A chuckle filled the air. “You mean spy stories?” The Trollhunter's mouth was pulled into a smile that further exposed his tusks. His eyes, however, never parted from the quiet village shrouded in darkness.

“Yes! Spy movies!” Krel held up one of his hands, index fingers stretched outwards and a large smile on his face. “I remember it was all about sneaking in somewhere and getting out unseen!”

The Trollhunter's shoulder shook in a barely suppressed laugh. They might have known each other very little before this forced week of isolation, but he had come to appreciate the Akaridion's quirks and enthusiasm for all things earthly, be they big or small. It was kinda sad that his sister was back on their home planet, because from what little interaction they had before her departure, he was sure she was as much of a blast to have around as Krel was.

“I didn't know you were into spy movies,” Jim said. Part of him knew that he should focus on the mission, that he should reduce distractions to a minimum. But again, he had never been a conventional Trollhunter since the very beginning and this was one of the less idiotic things he ever did. If things turned sour, he could always run for the hills with Krel on his shoulder.

Not that being discovered seemed like the biggest threat at the moment. Judging by the lack of lighting and sounds, Jim was convinced that the settlement had been abandoned for a while now. For what reasons though, he had no idea.

“Not a fan.” Krel shook his head. “I prefer music. They are still good to see, though some of them... make no sense.”

Jim hummed in agreement, but did not dwell further into the topic. While he enjoyed these random discussions, often seeking them to make days less depressing, there was a job to do that required his undivided attention.

“I think it's safe to go,” he murmured once he decided that further waiting would only waste the night away.

Before he could change his mind, Jim leaped on top of the boulder and perched on it like a cat. He stared at the village for a moment longer, occasionally sniffing the air in search of any presence that could pose a threat to them, then leaped the distance separating him from the first house. He landed with a gentle thud, crouching down in preparation for another jump if needed.

He knew that the village had been abandoned, but it hadn't fully registered in his head until that moment and the feeling of emptiness pressed against his body as it if was a physical force. It was disconcerting and somewhat scary.

“I'll stand guard,” he said once Krel had rushed to his side. “You look around.”

Normally Jim would help in the search, but as soon as he had set foot within the settlement he had gotten a really bad feeling about it. It had been so bad that his body had tensed up in response.

“You think someone is out there?”

The Trollhunter glanced at Krel standing behind him with worry evident on his face, slightly crouched and ready for action even if he lacked a weapon. “Maybe,” he replied, returning his attention upon the houses built along the main road. “I'm not sure. It feels like I just walked into a nest of snakes without knowing.”

“That... does not sound reassuring...” Krel muttered. “I will make it quick. You just... stay here and watch things.”

While the Akaridion directed himself towards a large building that promised to be more interesting than the rest, Jim jumped on top of the nearest roof. His armor clanked softly, and for the first time since arriving on that island he wondered if he should dismiss it in favor of extra silence. Problem was, since the Darklands these kind of situations always made him feel naked and vulnerable without it.

“Jim Lake Jr,” he hissed to himself, shaking his head and bringing up a hand to tug at one of his horns. “Get a grip!”

A sigh escaped his lips, but the movement and self-chiding helped him get back on track of things. Ignoring the rapid approach of clouds and the scent of a storm coming from the sea, Jim focused his attention to the street below like a hawk stalking a prey. He moved along the ridge of the roof, catching a glimpse of his friend leaving a house for the next, then leaped into the air with a soft grunt.

He continued this way for a while, jumping from roof to roof and following Krel from above, until they reached the dock and he was forced back onto the ground. He gave a quick glance around, then focused his attention onto the Akaridion boy approaching with a downcast expression.

“Nothing?”

Krel shook his head and sighed in deject. “Nothing,” he repeated. “Not even maps.”

Jim cringed, his teeth grinding together for a moment. “That is not good.” He had hoped. He had really hoped that they could find something useful. Turns out, however, that whoever had abandoned the village had taken all the important stuff with them. He should have seen that coming...

It was time to leave and go search elsewhere. The island, after all, was large, and all they had managed to explore so far was the woods, its surrounding hills, and the little village. That left the tall rocky mountain in the middle, the cliffs on the northern shore, and the rest of the hills just to name a few.

With the new plan formed in his mind, Jim was about to turn around and leave when a peculiar scent reached his nose. It was of something that strongly reminded him of burning matches, with a hint of decaying flesh and rotten teeth.

It was awful. It was irritating.

And it screamed 'snakes' in his mind.

Jim had never been scared of snakes. The only thing that he felt towards those animals had been worry, which was a sentiment that he had never let get in the way even when he faced the Nyalagroths. This time, however, the worry was bordering on fear, causing his heart to race in his chest.

Without wasting any more time in trying to identify his emotions, the Trollhunter hoisted a surprised Krel on his shoulder and bolted for the closest house. He crossed the threshold with a speed that would have launched him against the back wall if he didn't stick his foot forward and used it as a brake. “Bad, bad, bad!” he whispered, jumping up into the exposed rafters and using his own body to hide the Akaridion from view.

Not one moment later since taking refuge in the shadows, a dark shape slithered just outside the house. Jim didn't have a good view of it from where he was, but he could glimpse its long body coiling around itself as four arms reached for something on the ground. It stayed there for a while, examining whatever it had found, before something in the distance attracted its attention. The beast hissed, turned around, and slithered back to where it came from.

“Bad indeed,” Krel whispered, feeling very lucky to have been next to the Trollhunter when the thing had come. If it hadn't been for him, he would have never noticed the creature sneaking up on him.

“Time to go.” Jim let his friend climb on his back, then dropped onto the floor below carefully as to not cause more noise than necessary.

Reaching the door, he peeked outside and sniffed at the air. Now that the creature was gone, the combination of smells was gone, leaving only some faint traces to signal that it had been there just a moment ago.

“So that's what got you so worried.” Krel was still clinging onto his back, though he was using one of his hands to make sure Jim's horn wouldn't be poking his eye. Everything had happened so quickly that he hadn't had the time to properly hoist himself up, so now he was hanging at a slight angle and too high on his friend's shoulders.

Jim took a tentative step outside, and once he realized no monster was going to attack him he walked in the opposite direction. He might be a warrior capable enough to take on Angor Rot and Gunmar at the same time, but he was not ready to tackle an unknown enemy at the moment. Not when he had no idea what kind of skills or magic it possessed, or if it was alone or with others.

It was better to keep distances for now.


	4. Weathering the Storm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Turns out that naming chapters is far more difficult than writing the chapter itself.  
> Also, short chapters, mostly due to the fact that things are still picking up. Hopefully when they do, more to write?

“Looks like Thor is really angry tonight,” Astrid commented from her place near the fire, her head turned to look at Hiccup standing near the mouth of the cave they had found refuge in.

It had been more luck than anything else when they found their current shelter, its entrance hidden by a curve in the rocky wall of the mountain not too far from the village. Getting inside the cavern had been a bit tricky, especially with Hookfang, but in the end they had managed to cram themselves in a spot where the walls parted into a larger space. Not long after settling down and starting a fire, the storm had hit with a violence Hiccup had never seen before.

“Maybe he doesn't want us here...” Being the more easily scared of the group, Fishlegs was further down the cavern than anyone else. “We should have never come here. This place is spooky!”

Hiccup turned away from the raging storm. Spooky or not, his father had tasked him with figuring out what had happened to the shipwrecked viking's village, and while he trusted Thor having a good reason for unleashing such rage, he also would not let that stop him until the thunder god himself either struck him down with lightning or yelled in his face to leave.

“Let's not jump to conclusion,” he said, raising his hands up to placate the panicking teen. “Maybe his anger is directed towards someone else and we're just in the way...”

Like it often happened, no one believed his words. Hiccup could see that on their faces.

With an exasperated sigh and a throw of his arms up into the air, the lanky teen renounced in trying to convince a bunch of teens that Thor was, in fact, not out for their blood. “Remind me why am I even the leader here?” he asked to no one in particular.

The answers he got ranged from 'because you're the chief's son' to 'because I like to see you suffer', causing him to huff in indignation. How funny that he went from people not listening to him because he was weird, to people not listening to him out of habit and principle.

Sometimes he wondered why he was even trying as much as he was doing, or why he had let everyone tag along in his exploration around the archipelago to begin with.

“Come on, guys!” Astrid punched Snotlout in the shoulder, causing the large teen to topple against his dragon's side. “Give Hiccup a break! He might be right. We are still alive, aren't we?”

The teen silently thanked the girl for her support in the matter and wished he could have some of her charisma. He would be happy even with a mere sliver of it if it meant he could speak to other humans without appearing awkward all the time.

A soft gurgle signaled the approach of his dragon, who promptly bumped his head against his stomach in a silent declaration that he was listening to him. “Thank you, Toothless,” he said, patting the scaly head. “I really appreciate it.”

Another warbled response and suddenly he found himself sitting backwards on the Night Fury's shoulders. He laughed gently, hanging onto the back of the saddle to steady himself as the black dragon danced around. “Alright! Alright!” He called between laughs. “No more moping! You can put me down now!”

Leave it up to his best friend to lift his mood.

“Hey! That's cool! I want to try that too!”

That was Tuffnut speaking, but Hiccup could hear his sister agreeing with him in the background while Barf and Belch proceeded to chastise the two with small growls and calls. He didn't have a clear view of them due to Toothless facing the fire, yet he was pretty sure the twins were fighting each other and trying to reach for their dragon at the same time.

A moment later Snotlout was dragged into the scuffle and the camp suddenly descended into a chaos that Hiccup was very willing on not meddling with. He would let their dragons deal with the madness.

“You have to admit that it looks bad, though,” Astrid commented as she reached him. Stormfly was standing behind her, deciding that she too didn't want to be involved in the battle. “And we did see our share of bad storms.”

Now that Toothless had stopped jumping around, Hiccup maneuvered himself off the saddle with Astrid's help. “Well, yeah,” he muttered, nearly toppling on top of the girl when his foot caught somewhere. “But all we can do is wait it out. It looks like it won't let up for a while, so maybe we can find something to do?”

He regained his footing and turned to look at the rest of the group. Ruffnut and Tuffnut were on the ground, wrestling each other like always and with Barf and Belch looking as exasperated as a dragon could be. Snotlout was hanging by his belt from Hookfang's jaw, the latter tossing and turning his head in a way that would make the boy sick very soon. Fishlegs was nowhere to be seen, but Hiccup could see his gronckle's tail somewhere behind the other dragons, so he guessed that the stout rider was somewhere nearby.

Astrid snorted, her arms quickly crossing against her chest as she watched the chaos unfold. “I think they have that covered.”

Hiccup gave a weak laugh, shoulders slumping in defeat.

“Hey! Hiccup! Over here!” Fishlegs called from wherever he was. His voice was unusually loud, but then he had the need to be heard over the many shouts and growls from the wrestling group. “You have to see this!”

The lanky boy glanced at Astrid, silently asking for her opinion in the matter. Fishlegs, after all, could be very excitable at times and not always something he found was as interesting for others as it was for him.

“Might as well as go see what he has found,” the girl replied to his unspoken question. “Unless you want to try and get the others to stop..?”

Hiccup looked at her, then at the wrestling group of vikings and dragons, then back to Astrid once again. He sighed for what felt like the hundredth time that night. “Sometimes I really wonder why---” He stopped himself from voicing his thoughts, not wanting to let her know that he had often thought of just leaving the archipelago for good. “Never mind. Let's go see what he has found.”

Before Astrid could ask anything, he walked past Snotlout and the others to reach Fishlegs. Like he had guessed, the boy had taken refuge further into the cavern with his dragon to avoid the conflict.

“Alright, what did you find that I have to see?” Hiccup asked as he came to a halt behind him.

As an answer, the mountain of a teen turned around and grabbed his leader's wrist in a surprisingly iron grip. “At first I thought it was just normal rock, you know, with cracks and all, but then...” He pulled Hiccup forward and nearly caused him to smash his nose against the cavern's wall. “You can see them, right?”

Hiccup would have said that he could not see anything, but as it was with him having almost face-planted against the very surface of Fishlegs' interest, he did see something, though at first it looked like nothing more than a cracked wall of rock and whitish smudges.

Taking a few steps away to get a better look, the leader of the dragon riders had to admit that his friend's enthusiasm was well placed.

“It looks old,” Fishlegs whispered. “Older than the oldest building on Berk.”

Hiccup remained transfixed onto the wall of the cavern, examining the many incomprehensible symbols and figures he could see thanks to the light coming from the campfire. They did look ancient, and a lot of them were missing due to the damage of time, but there was enough left that maybe someone could understand their story given enough time.

Though, as much as all this sparked his curiosity, it was not what he was sent there to do and a single night wouldn't be enough time to learn everything. “Let's mark the spot on the map,” he said. “We can come back later once...”

He really didn't get to finish what he was saying because his eyes caught what looked like the drawing of a really huge creature. Parts of it were long gone, either chipped away or faded by running water, but it was clear that it was an extremely long snake coiling around an eye of sort.

For some reasons that he couldn't identify, Hiccup felt the coldest shiver he ever experienced in his life run down his back.


	5. Fight in the Storm

Jim was not happy with how things were going at the moment.

Whatever they had seen in the village had not been alone, for as soon as they rushed through the hills to go back to the safety of the woods, two more of the same kind of beast had given chase. On top of that, the storm had hit hard and had rendered the grass so slippery that the Trollhunter had been forced to run on his fours for better grip more times than he dared to admit.

Well into the chase, when things started to look more messy by the minute, he was surprised that Krel was still clinging onto his back and telling him in which direction the next attack came from.

“Shouldn't we, you know, attack back?” the Akaridion asked, yelling to be heard above the howling winds and pouring rain. “It doesn't look like we'll get away that easily!”

Jim knew his friend was right. These creatures, whatever they were, didn't seem ready to give up on them. They kept on following, slithering from left to right, lunging at his head whenever he slowed down or slipped. More than once he thought of using his sword to cut down the enemy, but he always stopped short from doing it, afraid of leaving Krel unprotected, or worse, lose him.

Not that the Akaridion was defenseless. The boy was not human, and as such, he had the extra strength and agility to hold his own in most situations. Problem was, these serpentine creatures were more than what he could handle without his chosen weapon.

After all, there was no certainty that once he stopped running to start fighting, both his enemies would focus on him. Sure, he would prove to be the bigger threat with his sword, but if they were smart enough for battle tactics, chances were that one of them would focus on him while the other went for Krel.

And if Krel went down, they would use him as hostage and make things far more complicated than they already were.

“Go to the mountain!” The boy on the half-troll's back patted his shoulder and pointed at the dark shape in the distance. “Snakes can't climb!”

The Trollhunter growled, spinning on a hand and kicking one of their pursuers on the nose. The blow sent the beast flying back several feet, landing on the slippery incline of the hill in a heap of spires and loud hisses.

“Snakes also don't have hands!” Jim yelled back, flattening himself against the ground to avoid sharp claws aimed at his face. “And they have four!”

Another loud hiss and the half-troll was back on his feet, leaping the remaining distance between him and the top of the hill. This put some space between them and their enemy, gaining them some precious seconds of respite.

“And you're a troll!” Krel countered, shifting his weight so that he wasn't slipping as much. The last thing he wanted was to be thrown off when Jim was forced into one of his harsher twists to avoid being caught. “Aren't troll supposed to be good climbers? Or something? Your people live in caverns!”

Jim felt like smacking his face. Of course he would be forgetting that. Well, not forget-forget. More like occasionally thinking he was still a scrawny kid despite being able to do what no other human could ever do. It was a weird in-between confusing phase that Nomura had assured him was perfectly normal and would settle down soon enough.

A scraping of scales on scales and Jim was forced to duck as a third pursuer made its presence known with a swipe of its long claws. The serpentine beast sailed over him, its long body landing at the base of the hill to curl up and slither back up the incline. Light wasn't much, but Jim could still see sharp claws and needle-like teeth.

“That's it!” The Trollhunter growled, exposing his own set of teeth. A moment later and his sword appeared in his hands with a burst of red mist that glittered in the darkness. “I'm done running!”

A roar came out of his throat as he rushed forwards, swords held back to strike. He felt Krel yelp from his back, but Jim momentarily ignored him in favor of attacking the enemy that was standing between him and the safety of the mountain.

The first cut was diagonal, going from the beast's left shoulder to what Jim guessed was the hip area. It sent dark blood and green scales flying in an arch, and it caused the four armed snake to jerk back with a screeched hiss of pain that was cut the very moment the Trollhunter sent its head flying with another swipe of his sword.

Jim hated killing. He'd rather sit down and talk it out for as long as it was necessary. But he also knew that there were times where diplomacy would never work. That was the reason he didn't feel guilty in taking his enemy's life and watch as the body slid down the wet incline.

“Well, now we know they aren't troll,” Krel muttered. He was still clinging onto Jim's back, but barely. “Otherwise they would have turned to stone. Right?”

The Trollhunter cringed, feeling a wave of nausea upon imagining the amount of blood hidden by the darkness of the stormy night. He cast his eyes onto the remaining two snakes, watching as they crawled back a few paces, unsure of what to do. They were hissing at each other, probably chattering about what to do now that their comrade was dead.

Smart of them to give pause, and he wondered if their intellect was comparable to a human's.

“Let's... let's just go...” Jim muttered, moving away from the enemy without turning his back. “Before more comes.”

The moment the top of the hill hid the creatures from view, he spun around and ran towards the mountain in the distance. Behind him the two giant snakes seemed to notice his quiet getaway and gave chase once more, hissing and chattering in their language.

It was a good thing that he decided to keep his sword out, because the instant he reached the bottom of the small valley, another snake jumped at him from his right. It forced him to a halt, causing Krel to lose his grip on his back and tumble onto the muddy ground with a yell of surprise. This drew the creature's attention and the Akaridion avoided being mauled to death only thanks to his reflexes and a quick roll to the side.

Jim let out another roar. It was so loud that it resounded in the air like the storm's thunder, creating this sense of anger and danger that lured the enemy's hostility onto him rather than Krel. The answering hiss was a clear sign that the giant snake had finally realized the Trollhunter was the bigger threat of the two.

Fangs snapping and claws curling for an attack, the unknown beast coiled. It did not attack immediately, though, preferring to wait for an opening on an opponent that was armed with a sharp blade and confirming Jim's suspicion of them being more than just animal predators.

“I can't fight and carry you in this weather.” As he spoke, Jim did not dare take his eyes away from the stalking beast in front of him. He knew there were at least two more out there, but at the moment they weren't as much of a threat as this one.

“I'll be fine,” Krel muttered. He was already standing as testament to his own durability, and wiping excess mud from his face. “Just... I can't fight without a weapon.”

Jim took a step to the right, moved his sword slightly to the left of his face, and growled softly at the waiting snake. He knew the thing was merely buying time for its comrades to catch up, but Jim was not keen on jumping to the attack when there was even a slight chance of Krel getting attacked by others.

“Run for the mountain,” he whispered. “I'll cover for you.”

Krel nodded and sprinted without wasting time.

Jim followed, sword ready.

Behind them, dozens of hissing, giant, four armed snakes made their presence known through the darkness.


	6. Clear Sky and Bloodied Earth

In his entire life, Hiccup had never spent a worse night than the previous one. Tired, grouchy, sore, and with eyes burning from lack of sleep, he was pretty much ready to jump on his dragon, say to Hel with everything and go back home to finally catch up with much deserved rest.

But Hiccup was also a viking, and while he didn't share the physical strength, the size, and the craving for battle, he did share their stubbornness.

No matter how loud the wind and the thunder had been. No matter how long the squabble between Snotlout, the twins, and their dragons went on. No matter if the writings and drawings on the wall gave him a bad feeling. He was not going to quit.

“We should go...” he muttered, rubbing an eye with a hand while the other flipped absently at the pages of his journal. Since he couldn't sleep, he had spent the time copying the mural out of boredom and in hope it would put him to sleep.

It hadn't worked as he had hoped, so he had ended up greeting the new day with an addled mind.

“I think you should rest.” Astrid was at his side, like always, and placing a hand on his shoulder to force him to stay laying against Toothless' warm flank. “You look... terrible.”

Hiccup rolled his eyes, but smiled gently at her concern. “I had worse days,” he replied. His hands worked lazily at the journal, making sure the pages weren't folding at a wrong angle or stuck out of the cover. He really needed to get a new one as this was starting to come undone at the seams.

Stashing the small book away into a compartment on Toothless' saddle, he stood up and stretched to get rid of all the aching in his muscles. “But I'm ready to get this over with and go back home.”

_'And rest for the next month'_ went unsaid, but was implied.

“Alright, people!” He called over to the rest of the group, snapping some to attention while the rest was shaken awake. “Time to get up, figure out what has happened to this tribe, and report any finding to my father so he doesn't burn a trench in the house because he's pacing in worry.”

There were groans and blatant shows of displeasure to be risen at such an early time in the morning, and for the umpteenth time, he wondered why he was even bothering with leading them if all they did was complain when he ordered something that didn't sit well with their personal agenda.

He gave a heavy sigh, watching as the twins wrestled once again over something he just didn't care enough to figure out and Snotlout sent angry glares in his direction. Then a hand found his shoulder and he was taken away from having to witness the small camp descend into another bout of chaos.

“Go take a moment to yourself,” Astrid said, smiling and nodding towards the mouth of the cave. “I'll take care of this.”

Hiccup smiled in return, truly grateful that the girl always had his back in one way or another. It made him appreciate her in ways he never thought to be possible. “Yeah, alright,” he mumbled, still wearing his probably-dopey smile. He turned around and scratched his dragon behind one of his ears to get his attention. “Come on, bud. Time to stretch your wings!”

Toothless' reply was a warble of happiness as the dragon stood up in excitement and bumped his large head against his rider's side. No matter what, flying was something that always eased them into the new day with better mood.

The lanky boy laughed, tiredness momentarily cast away, because watching a giant lizard getting excited to get up in the air never got old. “Alright, alright!” Hiccup threw his hands up in surrender as he was shoved towards the cavern's opening, where dim light was coming in.

Not a moment later he was sitting on his best friend's shoulders and making sure everything was in working conditions. The last thing he wanted was to crash from hundreds of feet in the air because a rope or a metallic part of the mechanism controlling the artificial tail-fin failed.

“Let's go see how the situation is out there.” Hiccup winced slightly upon getting to the entrance of the cavern. No matter if it was still early morning or if the sky was overcast with thick, gray clouds. His eyes adjusting to the new level of light after the darkness of their temporary shelter stung.

But Toothless, being a dragon, was different, and before he could properly see again, they were up in the air, whipping through the cold moisture and banking left and right to accommodate for the occasional burst of wind that still lingered after the storm.

Hiccup found himself thanking the muscle memory honed through years of practice, because he was pretty sure if he didn't have any of that, they'd be crashing on the ground far below face first.

“Woah, bud! Slow down!” Yet he couldn't help the happy laugh that came out of his mouth, nor the scream of exhilaration when Toothless dived, creating that particular whistle associated with the Night Fury.

They leveled out just before crashing, and with a loud roar, the dragon was pumping his wings to go up in the sky once again. Hiccup balanced against his back and neck, using the saddle's handles and stirrups to hold on and move accordingly, making it easier for Toothless to carry him.

And just like that first flight together years prior, he joined his dragon in vocalizing how much flying meant to him.

“Alright, bud!” Hiccup called once they leveled out far above the layer of dark clouds. Up there the sky was a clear blue that never got old. “Time to go back to the others, finish our mission, and go back home!”

A loud rumble reached his ears, and Hiccup knew Toothless was agreeing with him wholeheartedly. No matter how much they loved flying, the trip from The Edge had been long and tiring. He was as much ready to go back home as his rider was.

So it was with a tilt of his wings and an adjustment of the prosthetic tail-fin that the dragon started gliding down, drawing a large downward spiral above the concealed island in an effort to postpone the inevitable work they had to do.

Hiccup leaned backwards a bit and tilted his head to look up at the sky, trusting his friend to warn him if anything happened. He reached up with one hand and tried to grasp at the endless expanse dotted with clouds, hundreds of thoughts racing through his mind now that he had the time.

He wondered how high the sky went, if he could reach the ends or if it went on forever. He wondered how far the sun was, how far the stars and the moon were. He wondered if there was breathable air up there, past the thinning layer that seemed to always push them down whenever they tried. He wondered how far the sun was, or how far the moon and stars were.

He wondered if he would ever be able to fly on his own, with his own wings, or if he was forever bound to his dragon to get him up in the air.

Not that he hated the idea of flying with his best friend. He just wanted to feel what a dragon felt. If it was the same thing as a rider felt, or if it was different.

So many questions, and no idea where to start from.

A familiar squawk heralded the arrival of Astrid and Stormfly, who proceeded to glide alongside them just far enough to not bump wings. “Hiccup!” the girl called. “We found something, and... well...”

The troubled frown on her face was all it took for the boy to snap out of his thoughts and focus on the present. He gave a nod and patted Toothless on the neck to signal that their leisure time was over.

“Lead the way!” He said loudly enough to be heard over the wind. “We'll follow!”

Astrid nodded and with a small nudge Stormfly was diving towards the ground with a black dragon hot on her heels. They shot through the layer of dark clouds with nothing more than annoyance at the moisture clinging on them, then leveled out just a few hundred feet away from the ground and moved towards the single mountain in the middle of the island.

They landed way before reaching it however, and Toothless whined something that made Hiccup feel like he suddenly didn't want to be there. He reached down with one hand and patted his dragon on the neck to reassure him that whatever it was that troubled him, he was there at his side.

“We were scouting the island,” Astrid started once she dismounted from her dragon. She pet the Nadder on the neck to calm her down. “And Stormfly picked up something...”

As they advanced, Hiccup could hear the faint voices of the others as they discussed something on the other side of the hill they had landed on. He couldn't hear their words, but there was something that was telling him this was not going to be good.

“And, well...” Astrid stopped and looked at the boy in the eyes. “Hiccup, it's not pretty. I know we've seen our share of blood and death, but...”

Hiccup frowned, but said nothing. Instead he urged Toothless to walk up the rest of the hill so that he could see for himself what disturbed the strongest warrior he knew.

When he finally laid eyes on the spectacle on the other side, the boy squeezed his eyes shut and turned his head away for a moment. “Oh Gods...” he muttered, feeling the nausea rise in the back of his throat.

Taking a deep breath to steady himself, he dismounted his dragon and placed a hand onto his large head. It was a gesture of reassurance for the both of them, because just like Astrid had informed him, it was not pretty.

“I've seen dead dragons before... during the old raids,” Hiccup managed to say once he was able to look again. “But this... this is brutal...”

The small valley, nothing more than a crevice between two hills, was strewn with the corpses of a species of wingless dragon he had never seen before. Some of them were cut in half. Some were missing their heads, which was laying wherever it rolled to. Some, the most 'fortunate' of the bunch, presented only large stab wounds through their chest area.

And the blood...

The previous night's storm had washed most of it, but Hiccup could still see traces of dark blood smearing the green grass.

A touch to his shoulder and he turned his eyes from the macabre spectacle to the young warrior next to him. “It doesn't stop here,” she murmured. “There's a trail leading to the mountain... and... Hiccup, what should we do?”

Hiccup took a deep breath and heard the worried warble of his dragon friend. “We keep going,” he replied, feeling surprisingly calm despite everything. “But whatever it is, we take it carefully.”


	7. Growls in the Dark

Krel knew things weren't looking good at the moment. Not with Jim sitting against a rock and taking short and unsteady breaths.

“Think we're good?” he asked, looking towards the entrance of the cavern they had taken refuge in. It wasn't located very high in the mountain's side, but somehow Jim had managed to kill enough of those snakes that they had not followed despite the easy access.

“Maybe,” the Trollhunter replied between a broken cough and a wheeze. He had a hand against his side and his armor was covered in blood and mud. “Or maybe not. Who knows how many of them there are? Reminds me of the Gumm-Gumm army. Bring one down, two or more takes its place...”

The Akiridion cringed, his shoulders clenching together for a moment. “That is not... good...”

Deciding to momentarily ignore the potential threat of their enemy rushing in from the cave's entrance or its rear, Krel knelt next to his friend and tried to see how bad of a wound he had received during their escape.

It wasn't bad. At least not from what he could see with whatever light came from the entrance, but it still lost enough blood to be worrisome in his opinion. Jim, however, seemed perfectly fine with it, so maybe he was judging this all wrong.

“Is there anything I can do?”

The Trollhunter let out a grunt followed by a faint chuckle filled with exhaustion. “Not really,” he replied, closing his eyes and resting his head against the rock behind him. “It'll heal, but if you got any... bandages...”

Bandages. Right. One of the many, _many_ things that the two of them lacked in their current vacation on Only-Gods-Knows-Where Island. Maybe going back to the village would provide them with some basic supplies, but neither Krel nor Jim wanted to set foot outside now that they knew what was lurking on the small piece of land in the middle of an unknown ocean.

“Are you sure you're not going to bled to death?” The Akiridion had to ask, because while he had contact with some of the trolls and had learned some of their physiology beforehand, half trolls were another matter entirely. Normal trolls did not bled if injured, after all.

“Yeah, it looks worse than it is,” Jim replied.

His tired chuckle was not entirely reassuring though, and Krel frowned deeper than he already was. He really hated the idea of being hunted by whatever those things were and have no means of effectively fighting back. He really missed his Serrator, but at this point, he would be happy just by wielding a branch. Anything was better than nothing.

“I hope so...” he eventually muttered, sitting down next to his friend and curling his legs against his chest. Two of his hands clasped around them, while the other two folded on top of his knees so that he could lean his head on them.

He was tired. Not to the point of collapsing due to exhaustion, but still enough to want to lay down and sleep even if he wasn't sleepy at all. It was a weird state to be in, frustrating and nerve-wracking. An equivalent of how humans would be when a substance called adrenaline had been abundant in their blood and was just now disappearing.

“How did this happen?” he asked after a while. “Us getting here in the first place, I mean.”

He heard Jim hum and shift in search of a more comfortable position to sit in. A futile endeavor considering that rock was as harsh as it could get.

“I was visiting Arcadia in search of more information about this totem thing we stumbled upon in New Jersey,” the Trollhunter replied. It was a tale they had already shared before, but they always hoped that retelling it would bring forth new details from they had not paid any mind before. “So I decided to visit Toby, too.”

Krel snorted, a smile appearing on his downcast face. “And he decided to visit me,” he continued. “I was working on this compact, portable version of my wormhole generator. Toby was so excited to see how far I got with it and wanted to show it to you.”

“In hindsight, I should have left the totem somewhere safe.” Despite all the mistakes that brought them on that island, Jim couldn't help the amused smile appearing on his face. “But again, who would think that we'd be attacked by... who where those guys again?”

Krel didn't know if he should sigh in exasperation or laugh at how the cosmos loved to make things difficult for him. “Some bounty hunters that never got the memo that Morando will never be able to pay them if they succeed.”

“You got to hand it to them, though...” Jim was fighting off his own laugh. “They _did_ make an entrance. Coming down with their ship right above your house, using that 'kidnapping ray' like in those old movies right in the middle of the day. I'm sure that if Arcadia wasn't used to the supernatural by now, everyone would be in a panic.”

“Yes. After an invasion from an evil troll army and a giant Akiridion with godly powers prancing around town, a space battleship is mild.”

Not that Krel could remember seeing people's faces while he was being sucked upwards with Jim and the rest of his neighbor. He had been too busy trying to reach his wormhole generator to keep it stable to pay attention at what was going around him. Something he failed to do since as soon as they reached the ship he collided with the Trollhunter and his ancient totem thing, making everything explode.

“I don't even know who those bounty hunters are. How they look...” the Akiridion sighed once the mirth caused by the absurdity of recent events subsided. “Or from where they come from. Maybe from the other end of the universe since they never got that memo.”

In the end, like every time before this, they came up with nothing new. It left them discouraged and with dampened moods, their silence the only thing filling the air around them. Still, deep down, Krel would not give up. Not when he knew some of their stuff had been brought along for the trip.

It was all a matter of finding it and wiring it together in a way that it could send them back home. Or at least send a distress signal so that people could rescue them.

Now _that_ was something he was good at. The best, actually.

To come up with the most sophisticated inventions with the most basic of stuff.

A small smile reappeared on his face and Krel felt like he could take on the world once again. He stood up and dusted himself more out of habit than being dirty. “I should--”

Before he could express his idea of exploring the natural tunnel they had taken refuge in, Krel was interrupted by the sudden appearance of voices coming from the cavern's entrance. They were soft, barely echoing against the damp walls, but it didn't take long for them to become worryingly strong.

One of them in particular stood out from the rest for being somewhat commanding in tone

Krel did _not_ like this.

“Jim?”

“I hear no hissing,” the Trollhunter replied softly. He hadn't moved from where he was sitting against the rock, but he looked ready to bolt into action if needed. “Maybe locals?”

There was hope in that, but it was quickly dashed away by something that could only be described as a barked growl that nearly made the surrounding air vibrate. It was a sound that made Jim's hair stand on end and made Krel feel like something deadly was breathing down his neck.

“If they are,” the Akiridion whispered. “I don't want to meet them in a dark place.”

There was another growl, this one drawn out in a way that went on for far longer than it was supposed to due to all the echoing. When silence finally fell once again, Krel could hear Jim getting to his feet and sniff at the air, willingly letting his trollish instincts momentarily take over.

“I... don't like this...” the Trollhunter whispered, taking a step away from the source of his discomfort. “It's like... I don't know... like facing an equal. But less friendly and more like... a competitor?”

Krel stared at him, one eyebrow raised. In the dim light he couldn't see much, but the faint red glow of his armor showed him how worried he was. Which meant that it was a really bad thing since Jim was usually quite hard to shake after his transformation.

“Time to go?” he asked hopefully.

Jim nodded and his eyes squinted when an orange light flared to life, illuminating the walls and overtaking the natural light of the day. “Time to go,” he confirmed, taking a step back into the darkness offered by the cavern's depths.

Whatever or whoever had let out that growl, Jim was not willing to face it yet and Krel was perfectly happy to go along with that decision.


	8. A Tentative First Meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally! You people have no idea how much I struggled with this chapter. I had to start it three times before I found the right way to deal with this, and I'm still not entirely happy with it, but I know that if I linger any more I will end up not updating at all for months, if not a year, and you people don't really deserve this.
> 
> Anyway, usual reminder that this work has not been beta read, so expect errors, typoes, and general weird things going on in the text. There's only so much I and the automatic corrector can pick up.
> 
> Enjoy!

Like every other of its kind, the cavern Hiccup and his group had found themselves in was dark, cold, and humid. And like any other cavern, it was unevenly going up and down and twisting left and right. At one point they were forced to leave behind their dragons and have Fishlegs stand guard in case the lizards were attacked or decided to wander off.

“Careful where you put your feet,” Hiccup called from the head of the group, stretching his arm forward so the torch he was holding illuminated the cavern floor. “It's slippery here.”

After voicing his warning he moved forwards, testing the ground with his peg leg with each step he took. Behind him he could hear the twins getting into yet another argument, though this one was interrupted early when they both fell on their back. A moment later and they were breathlessly commenting and agreeing on how hard the fall had been, where their helmets had ended up, and how they were sure they were going to get scars out of this. Or huge dark splotches on their skin to show their hurdle.

Hiccup really didn't care about that, though, and returned to idly wishing that his left leg was still there. For all its usefulness in everyday life, his prosthetic didn't have the same grip on certain surfaces that his real foot had, and the last thing he needed was to follow the Thorston twins in their fate.

“This place feels like it hasn't been disturbed since the time of its creation. Are we even in the right place?” Astrid asked, grabbing one of his shoulders to steady him when she noticed how unstable he was becoming. Her hand was as firm as ever, just with a bit more of gentleness than when sparring or pinning down someone.

“The tracks lead here, and Stormfly has confirmed it,” Hiccup replied. His arms were spread wide in an effort to maintain what little balance he had after nearly slipping. “Let's go a bit further before we decide what to do.”

Honestly, he wasn't happy with how things were turning out. Sure, he knew that tracking down something that didn't want to be found would be hard, but this was skimming into impossibility and the idea of spending the last half of the day traipsing through a dark and smelly cavern was not exactly what he wanted to do.

For all he knew, they might be walking into Hel's domain to meet their doom...

Giving a sigh to dispel his anxiety and having found his balance once again, Hiccup raised his torch as high as he could and observed what laid before him.

It was nothing more than just more cavern, but judging from how the walls and ceiling seemed to widen before disappearing into darkness, they had stumbled upon some sort of natural chamber. Here the dragons would have fit nicely, and Hiccup found himself wishing the passage had been large enough to let at least Toothless through.

“Well,” the boy muttered to himself. “No tamed Whispering Deaths, so might as well as get this over with...”

He took a tentative step forwards, careful to not slip again, and promptly stopped moving when a low growl filled the relatively silent cavern. Behind him, just a few paces away, he could hear Astrid stiffen, the twins still in their non verbal fight, and Snotlout eep in surprise and worry.

“Looks like we found...” Hiccup paused and wet his lips. It sounded like a dragon, but there was something in it that was different. Maybe it was the echo, or maybe it was his ears playing tricks on him, but the sound sounded almost... earthly. Not as loud as some of the dragons he knew, but decidedly deeper in tone.

Still, despite the subtle differences, he knew a warning growl when he heard one so he held up his free hand and motioned for everyone to take a couple of steps back while he stayed where he was. The intention was to show that he was not afraid, but at the same time that he and his friends were not there to harm or to capture.

“Easy...” he called, lowering his arms and hoping he looked _and_ sounded harmless. “Easy. I don't want to hurt you.”

Hiccup knew that wild dragons didn't understand words, but rather the sound of his voice. If he kept it level and showed no sign of aggression in his posture, there was a huge chance that the scared or angry beast would let him approach.

Unfortunately for him, however, things rarely went according to plan and not even a moment later something was launched at him. The thing, whatever it was, was so quick that all Hiccup saw was a flash of red before his torch was cut in half and the top part of it fell to the ground with a loud clatter of wood against stone.

“Hiccup!”

Astrid nearly rushed to his side, but the boy held up a hand to halt her progress before things could degenerate. “It's just a warning shot,” he told her, not taking his eyes away from the darkness before him. Now that his torch had lost its flame due to the impact against the wet cavern floor, all he had was the light coming from behind him. “Let me handle it. But... be ready for anything.”

Hiccup knew sometimes he was naive and believed too much in the goodness of others, but he also was smart enough to know the difference between a hard task from an hopeless situation. Yes, he was sure that whatever was growling at him from the darkness was dangerous and ready to kill. But just like he had said, that had been a warning. Any more to the left and he would have lost his head, and while many would believe it was luck that saved him, he just knew that his neck had been missed on purpose.

“I'm not here to harm you,” he called again, discarding what was left of his torch so both his hands were held up and facing forward. “I want to be friends.”

Another growl filled the cavern. Despite sounding downright exhausted, it was forced into a long and continuous rumble until, finally, the energy put into it seemed to run out and everything fell quiet once again.

Hiccup found himself squinting his eyes to peer through the darkness, wanting to see the dragon he was trying to approach, and caught a brief glimpse of faded outlines of red before another growl filled the air and whatever it was leaped away further into the cavern.

“Well...” he muttered, hearing Astrid and the others walk up to him. “That went... better than I expected...”

“It doesn't sound like it wants to be followed,” Snotlout commented, showing surprising insight of the situation. It was a rare occurrence, but it happened. “Should we really go after it?”

Truth to be told, Hiccup wasn't too keen into following this dragon into the dark maws of the earth, but he had already come so far into this that he was also reluctant in letting it go. Whatever the reason, be it territory or a simple grudge against two species, the fight had apparently become so bad that an entire tribe paid the price for it.

It was the reason why vikings and dragons had such a history of war and blood on their shoulders, and while Berk was several weeks away by boat, it was an easy and fast reach for something with wings. Even the slowest specie could get there in a couple of days. No matter if it was by sky or by sea.

“We follow,” he said after a while. “And solve this before more people or dragons get hurt.”

He could still recall those snake-like bodies mangled and rotting under the weak sun, creating a winding path through the hills until they came to a valley right below the mountain. There the creatures had grouped together in an effort to overwhelm their opponent with their number, but had ultimately found their end in such a gruesome manner that even Astrid had to turn her head away for a moment.

“Who wants to go back and tell Fishlegs we might take longer than we thought?” he asked as he reached down to retrieve what was left of his torch. It was only half of its original length now, but if handled carefully, it could still do its intended job.

“I'll go,” Tuffnut offered just as his sister did the same, dragging him into yet another fight on who would go, how they would go, and how fast they could do it.

Hiccup _felt_ Astrid roll her eyes, and he would have followed her lead if he wasn't so busy patiently reigniting his torch. As it was, he let her deal with the roughhousing twins and order Snotlout to accompany them to make sure they didn't fall into some crevice and get stuck there.

“Are you sure it's wise to get separated like this?” he asked when the trio of vikings was nothing more than a speck of light and faint shouts in the distance.

“Do you want to deal with them while you also deal with the dragon?” she asked in return, placing the tip of her torch against his and holding it there. “Because I'm pretty sure you'll have your hands full with just one of them without having to add the other.”

Hiccup cringed. “Alright. Point made,” he replied. “You cover my back?”

He felt a tug against one of his locks. It was gentle, but still strong enough to make his head tilt towards her.

“Always.”


	9. Turns Out it Isn't As Bad As It Looks. It Might Be Worse...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Turns out I'm unable to write more than two pages and something for this chapter. Mostly due to the fact that it's some sort of transition more than something important and I don't want to add useless filler in it. Sadly, gone are the days in which I was able to prolong something for ten or fifteen pages. Or maybe it's good since those pages used to be filled with things that the fic could do even without.
> 
> Ahhh... the struggles of fighting the inner critic and perfectionism... a battle rarely won...
> 
> Anyway, I hope this little chapter can sate your thirst for more until the next one, which should be at least slightly longer since things should be happening.
> 
> No promises though, because I'm an unreliable author...

The deeper into the cavern they went, the less Jim felt sure his latest decision had been the right one. Still, there was that lingering feeling of something wrong in the air. Something that raised his hackles and rang every alarm bell that had been ingrained into him since his first day on the job. It made him feel irritated, frustrated, and downright agitated.

It was... disconcerting, though, because for the life of him, he had no idea of _why_ he felt like a caged animal over two very _human_ teens trying to approach him.

Maybe Krel was right. Maybe his injury was worse than it looked and he had lost enough blood that his senses had been compromised, mistaking something harmless for danger.

“I...” he licked at his lips when he realized they were too dry for comfort. “I think I need to sit down... for a little bit...”

“Yes, good idea.” Krel was immediately at his side, helping him down against the wall that could only be barely seen thanks to Jim's enchanted armor. “You need rest. I will keep guard. Maybe they have given up.”

Somehow, Jim doubted that. While the other party looked ill fitted to explore a cave, the boy had sounded determined enough to approach him that he wouldn't be surprised if they continued in their pursuit.

Maybe he thought he was a lost dog or something, not that he could tell when the guy spoke a language that he didn't understand...

Jim snorted lightly at the idea. There was no way that his growl would be mistaken for a dog's. He had made sure of it, keeping it low and guttural. And with those snakes slithering around... well, he really hoped the kids had taken a hint and left for safer places.

One good thing was that least now they knew they were on Earth for certain, and not some distant world no one knew of. With that in mind, it was just a matter of finding a way off the island and a working phone, and they'd be home in time... in time for something. Jim had no idea of what, but he was pretty sure his friends and family would find something. Even if just to celebrate their safe return.

“Jim? Jim!” Krel's voice drew him out of his wandering thoughts with difficulty. “Do not fall asleep. Falling asleep is bad!”

The Trollhunter looked up at his friend and tried to think past at how amusing it was that Krel could be seen so well in the darkness thanks to his bioluminescence. Was it even bio when the Akiridion had clearly stated he was made of energy rather than biological matter?

“I... I wasn't...” Truth to be told, however, it was increasingly becoming hard to think straight. Looks like his wound _wasn't_ as 'it looks worse than it is' as he had first thought. “I was?”

“You were,” Krel confirmed with a nod before he placed a hand against his shoulder to steady him. “You fought all night against many, many snakes with arms and became injured. It is only natural you are exhausted. But you must stay awake.”

Jim was going to answer that, yes, he was capable enough to stay awake, but he stopped just as he was opening his mouth when the amulet lodged on his chest flashed twice in rapid succession in a warning the Trollhunter knew very well. “Oh...” he commented as the armor that had protected him until then exploded into a fine red mist of light, leaving the ancient artifact to fall to the ground with a loud clink and him covered in shredded clothes that were too small for his new body. “Oh...”

For a long moment Jim was torn between feeling relieved that he was finally free of the armor after so many months and being really worried because his 'will to fight', or whatever it was, was slipping.

Krel looked at him, then down at the amulet sitting innocently on the ground, then back up at him with an expression that spoke volumes at how screwed they were. “Our only weapon disappears in... in...” he helplessly waved a hand towards Jim to indicate the red mist that had surrounded him just a moment ago. “And all you can say is... 'oh'?”

The Trollhunter cringed, but then he gave a huge sigh and leaned against the rock behind his back. “What else can I say?” he muttered, all his efforts going towards staying lucid enough to have a conversation. “Despairing about it will not help. I just need to rest a little and then the amulet will work again.”

He felt like closing his eyes and sleeping, maybe lay down and find a comfortable spot on the damp rock, but there was still a small part of him that kept telling him to do what Krel had said.

He was just so tired...

“Maybe...” Krel started in a whisper. “Maybe we should ask for help.”

And with just the uttering of those words, Jim felt a rush of adrenaline that snapped him back into reality, ready to stand up and tackle anything that came his way. “No, no..!” he forced his body to sit up straighter, realizing only then that he had been slipping down. “I'm fine! I'm fine! No need to go ask those two kids for help!”

He was up onto his feet before Krel could protest, but the moment didn't last and soon he was swaying on the spot, one hand going to reach for the cavern's wall in search of a sturdy support while the other pressed against his forehead to ward off the sudden spell of dizziness.

“You are being very unreasonable,” the Akiridion boy grunted out, two hands going to steady his friend while the other two went to rest against his hips. “They do not seem to pose any threat.”

“To you, maybe.” Jim was very adamant on keeping his distance from the two teens they had just encountered. It was like his better judgment had decided to abandon the smart section of the brain and go hand in hand with his confused instincts.

The Akiridion looked at him for a moment before rolling his eyes in exasperation. “Fine, we keep our guard up,” he said as a mean of compromising with Jim' own wishes. “First signs of hostility and we run. That is alright, yes?”

Jim watched his friend and lightly chewed on his upper lip. Krel's idea wasn't bad. Actually, it was the best one they could have at the moment, but there was still that _insistent_ feeling of _not right_ that really, _really_ made him want to just avoid them even if it meant getting into a worse situation than their current one.

“Uhhh... alright... alright..!” he ground out, mentally forcing himself to push past the unreasonable feelings warring in his head. “But... how do we approach them without scaring them? Last time I checked, not everyone is ready to start chatting with a troll and someone from another planet.”

There was a long and awkward pause between them, then Krel crouched on the ground and pressed all his hands over his face. “Right... my Serrator is missing...”

Despite everything that was going on, from the out of control instincts to the armor being gone, Jim couldn't help the loud snort of amusement that came out of his mouth. “We'll... we'll figure out something... I guess...”

After all, the Trollhunter decided, it couldn't be any worse than the trip through the Darklands or any other instance where he and his friends were able to get out of a situation by sheer luck and external help rather than well planned actions.


End file.
